Marking a milestone in AT&T’s push for video franchising rights, the North Chicago, Ill., City Council announced last night their agreement with AT&T to deliver next-generation video and broadband services to the North Chicago area. This competitive video agreement is the first of its kind to be approved in Illinois.   

The agreement gives North Chicago residents another choice in video and entertainment providers, while pushing fiber optics further into neighborhoods. AT&T will provide “switched IP,” -based video services, called AT&T U-Verse TV, and Internet access. In the future, they hope to also provide voice over IP services.

To satisfy concerns about video fees, the agreement stipulates that AT&T will provide public, educational and government programming channels, as well as local, state and federal emergency messaging. Further, it allows North Chicago to keep local control over public rights of way.

This agreement with North Chicago is part of AT&T’s $4.6 billion Project Lightspeed initiative, which aims to deliver the next generation of broadband and video service to 19 million homes throughout its 13-state residential service territory by the end of 2008. These services will also be available to more than 5.5 million low-income households within the 41 Project Lightspeed markets.